OCM Members Talking To Congress And DOJ About Merger Concerns

Organization for Competitive Markets members are in the nation’s capital this week meeting with Congress and the Department of Justice. OCM President Mike Weaver says their concerns center around the proposed $66 billion merger of Bayer and Monsanto. He says if it’s allowed to go forward, prices for farmers will go up and they’ll be limited on where they can buy their seeds.

He says Bayer company officials will have to borrow a lot of money to make the deal work and less funding will go towards needed research and development for their farmer customers.

Weaver says despite the companies arguments that innovation and availability of their products will increase the opposite is happening with increased costs for farmers on top of that.

Weaver says OCM is concerned not only with the Bayer Monsanto merger but also with mergers involving Dow and Dupont and Syngenta’s takeover by Chem China. He says there were six seed companies, but following approval of all of these, there will only be four.